 The Opposition’s main role is to question the government of the day and hold them accountable to the public Attitudes to the role of the Leader of the Opposition should be taken into account by people. The way opposition parties work together can influence the outcomes - if they succeed in working together and in building the "political numbers" they increase their chances of toppling the government.
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| Holding the Government accountable |
| One of the most important jobs of the Opposition is to constantly question the Government. “Any Government has to remain answerable to the public at all times, and a good Opposition can put the spotlight on serious issues and have them resolved quickly”. |
| An active Opposition will also debate legislation vigorously to ensure the legislation receives careful consideration. |
| Being in Opposition is not just about opposing the Government. “There are occasions when the Opposition agrees with the Government. If the solution proposed by the Government has wide support, and is soundly based, then it’s only natural for the Opposition to agree". |
| Leading the Opposition |
| “It’s also really important that the leader keeps a close eye and ear on what the public is saying, needs and wants – because problems are often caused by the Government not delivering.’ |
| Concentrating on the issues that matter |
| There are some issues “sometimes caused by Government negligence” that become the Opposition’s main platforms. |
| The leader of the Opposition has an important role to play in raising issues such as this. |
| The Opposition’s role is only partly to “oppose, oppose, oppose”. But this role should be more constructively as holding the government to account. “If you go about that in a positive way – you can cause government to adopt positive proposals.” |
| There are occasions on which oppositions agree with the Government. These tend to be where it is simply in the wider public interest that a problem is fixed, where the solution the government is proposing has wide support, and it is hard to disagree with it. |
I have been a member of the board of the Finnish Alliance from 2001 to 2007. In one meeting in 2004 I heard in my own ears, when chairman Heikki Tala told the board that Helsinki district court was ready to ban our organization! An official had told this threat to our chairman in a meeting in the Ministry for Internal Affairs.
ReplyDeleteA government's threat to ban a peaceful organization (because of its opinions) violates the principles of democracy.
As far as I have understood, leading politicians - president Halonen and prime minister Vanhanen among others - were responsible for this threat to ban the Finnish Alliance - without any reason!
Like any other organization in Finland, the Finnish Alliance has the right to express its opinion about anything, eg bills and laws.